For Adult Clients
For nearly fifty years I have assisted people in navigating physical and mental health challenges. I help them to know themselves better and to develop new skills. Some life experiences are painful. Creating a trusting relationship with a therapist can help one face difficulties and explore one’s resources in a secure setting. I am committed to helping people access the innate healing powers inherent in their own lives. My treatment approach is based in attachment and neurobiology theories and integrates our bodies, intellects, and emotions. I am skilled in verbal therapies and I also offer Expressive Arts options. Sandtray has been the method that I have found to be the most efficacious for adults. I welcome all ethnicities, cultures, faiths, and genders. If you are interested in what you see on this website, please contact me to make an appointment.
Some experiences cannot be easily expressed in words. Painting, drawing, clay, and crafts are available in my office. The most prominent Expressive Arts items are the sand trays and the various miniatures that may be used to form a “world” in the sand. Sandtray requires no skill to use and can be fun as well as informative. I do not view Sandtray as a stand-alone method of treatment, although some people may choose it quite routinely. Expressive Arts approaches tend to be nonverbal or less verbal and are meant to evoke the vague and indescribable elements of life, as well as those already accessible to us. Expressive Arts therapies provide a way to look at ourselves and to identify resources that may be hidden from us. Please consider the statements of some Sandtray creators below. Note that the images provided do not correspond to the speakers. They are solely examples of various ways people may express themselves.
When the Sandtray option was introduced to me, I rejected it. Later, I decided to try it. I was hesitant and skeptical that it would do anything to help me, but I decided to give it a shot out of curiosity. It was a foreign idea – playing with miniatures and sand as an adult. How would that help ME?
I’m so glad that I took the chance. I was delighted to discover the depth of its healing. The Sandtray opened a whole new door of possibilities. I was able to tap into a new level of innate guidance that I can’t access by other means. Instead of thinking and talking about my issues, I could drop into deeper insights of authentic emotional intelligence. The results then carried over into my day-to-day life.
I continued to use the image resources for many sessions afterward, receiving “ahas” every time. Each time I had a new Sandtray session, doors opened to profound surprises. To be honest, I still hold symbols in my consciousness from past Sandtray sessions as far back as five years ago. They gave me self-understanding on a core level. Even now, when I recall some of the trays, it taps me into grounded strength and self-awareness.
A vast array of fun objects is used for the sessions. There are hundreds and hundreds of options for play. With so many creative delights of visual representation, the sky’s the limit for learning! Roxanne uses her powerful skill in guiding the process of Sandtray therapy. She first steps back to let my own wisdom create the scenes. For me, that stage involves turning off my rational thinking as I choose and arrange the objects based on instinct. Her presence supports me dropping into a level of trust and surrender to my own wisdom. In later stages, she then uses her incredible innate ability to reflect and ask questions as we explore meanings of the world. I am empowered to discover insights of learning, as doors open for me from our dialogue. We may look at the objects and the setup of my tray with open curiosity. I am guided to connect the dots to see the value of what my subconscious is telling me. The subsequent dialogue leads to deep exploration, often leading to epiphanies. I’ve found life-changing value from Sandtray therapy that I’ll continue to carry with me for years to come.
I grew up in a family that noticed and talked about our dreams at the family breakfast table. We would try to decipher what they meant to us. To me, creating a Sandtray is like a living dream.
I would come to do Sandtray thinking, “no problem, just see what happens,” and the way the work was processed was always relevant to my life. Sometimes I was floored as we processed my sand world, because it showed me exactly what I was going through inside of me but didn’t know it until I actually saw it in the sand, and then felt the experience resonate deeply within my life.
Sometimes I’d start working on something that was a global issue, and through our work together discover a profoundly personal connection that was useful. At times, I’d create my sense of feeling stuck about a situation in my world. As we went through the Sandtray process together, I would eventually find a way out or through my dilemma. Then Roxanne could help me apply my Sandtray work to my everyday life situation in a practical way.
I have discovered that Sandtray work enables me to go beneath my words to what is real inside me. I’m smart and can easily use words to hide in—both from others and from myself.
I’ve been in traditional talk therapy, off and on, for 35 years. Once, I had the opportunity to experience a Sandtray session. It was the most powerful therapy session I have ever had.
I walked into the room filled with small objects of many kinds. I was asked to go around the room and choose whatever spoke to me and did so in a rather “free-floating” manner. Then I placed my items in the sand. What I recall most vividly was what emerged from the session, which was my life as depicted in the sand. This was an eye-opening visual for me. What I saw was that I had created my life as the person who felt the need to take care of everything, even though that did not bring me joy or pleasure. I was able to literally see the person that I would rather be, physically and emotionally, and experience contrast between what I had formed my life to be and what I wanted it to be.
I’ve thought about that single Sandtray experience many times. I believe that part of the reason this experience was so helpful for me was that I’m a “visual processor” rather than a “verbal processor.”
Am I too old for therapy? The short answer is no.
In the 1960’s it was assumed that the human brain stopped growing after age 12. Freud believed that humans stopped developing after 50… Both are incorrect assumptions.
In our maturity we have much more to adapt to, such as health changes, losses, and reorganizing our lives. Current science reveals that our brains remain flexible throughout our lives. According to Daniel Plotkin, MD, a mature age is associated with qualities that are much more likely to make psychotherapy successful (AARP.org/bulletin, 3-21).
Consider these perspectives:
- “In youth we learn; in age we understand.” Marie Ebner-Eschenbach
- “There’s a great difference between simply living a long life and living a full and rewarding life. What’s really important is how much rich texture and color we can add to our lives….Quality is the true value, not quantity.” Daisaku Ikeda
- “There is a fountain of youth: it’s your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” Sophia Loren
- “Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to be, / The last of life, for which the first was made…” Robert Browning
